


Let's Start Walking

by SirenAlpha



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-14
Updated: 2015-11-14
Packaged: 2018-04-30 10:27:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,161
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5160350
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SirenAlpha/pseuds/SirenAlpha
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There are probably weirder ways to start a relationship, but Dex doesn't know of any. He does know that it's not the worst way to start one.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Let's Start Walking

**Author's Note:**

> The title comes from the song I was listening to while I wrote this which is "A Little Less Conversation" by Elvis.

Dex had found a nice spot near the food where he wouldn’t be bothered for the rest of Jack and Shitty’s joint grad party. Dex wouldn’t call it a bad party, but he’d pretty much had enough of people, especially when it comes to people related to Shitty. They’d been in town for days, and Dex never wanted to see any of them again. He had at least a three foot separation from everyone else and a full plate of food, he could totally make it through the rest of the party.

“You’re on Jack’s team, aren’t you?”

Dex fumbled for his plate and thankfully didn’t lose any food. Kent Parson circles around him to grab one of the dessert plates featuring Bitty’s pie. Dex blinked at him then remembered he was supposed to answer. “Yeah, I’m Will Poindexter.”

“No offense,” Parson said, for some reason deciding to stand next to Dex at the edge of the food table rather than rejoin the party and like find Jack who he’s actually friends with. “But you don’t look like a Will.”

“It’s cause I’m ginger,” he answered, used to that particular comment about his name. “The team calls me Dex.”

Parson nodded. “That’s a lot better.”

Dex shrugged because it really didn’t matter to him what nickname people used for him as long as only his mother called him Billy. Dex struggled to think of anything to say, trying to figure out if he should actually face Parson if they were going to try and have a conversation.

“This pie is the only good part of this whole thing,” Parson said, and Dex nodded before catching himself. Neither of them should be saying that about a graduation party. “Who made it? It’s definitely not store bought.”

“You’re a pie enthusiast? Is that compatible with being an NHLer?” Dex asked because it was easier than asking the multitude of other questions he had about Parson. “And Bitty made it. He makes all the pie around here.”

Parson takes a large bite out of his pie slice. “Alright, I pride myself on being good with names, but I have no idea who you’re talking about.”

“Oh, that’s probably cause Bitty’s our nickname for him. His name’s Eric Bittle, he’s a short blond guy.”

Parson gives him a look, and Dex realized he had also just described Parson. “Uh, sorry, not you, he’s actually shorter than you.”

He laughed. “Relax, I’ve had time to get over not getting a second puberty and a miraculous growth spurt.”

“Yeah, uh, anyways, Bitty made all the desserts for today,” Dex said, resisting the urge to shove food in his mouth so he’ll stop talking.

“He’s pretty good, but not the best I’ve had.”

“Seriously?” Dex asked. “Where have you had better?”

“Vegas has surprisingly good pie, believe it or not.”

“I don’t. Your trainers or dieticians or whatever let you eat pie?”

“Not technically,” Parson said, going around Dex to grab another slice of pie. “Eating a couple of slices of pie every so often is not going to ruin my diet.”

A group of adults, or at least not college student adults, headed towards the food table, and they look like they might be related to Shitty. Dex turned to Parson and had no idea what to say to a hockey famous person he probably wasn’t going to ever see again. Parson smiled. “See ya.”

“Yeah,” Dex said, heading off to find Chowder to use his chatter to fend people off.

* * *

 

Dex technically could be considered lost, but he had his phone so he could still find his way back to his family’s hotel. He had no idea where he was but he still wasn’t going to ever tell his mother that after all the finagling he had to do to be allowed to go around the city on his own. Besides, it was warm out and wherever he was it seemed to be mostly restaurants with outdoor seating.

“Hey, Dex!”

Dex looked around wondering who in Vegas even knew him who wasn’t in his family. He spotted Kent Parson in sunglasses and his trademark snapback on backwards at the table of one of the restaurants. Dex stared at him, and Parson waved him over. He stopped at the fence surrounding the tables and chairs. Only one other couple sat outside with Parson at the other end of the area, and both of them were giving them weird looks.

“You can come around and sit with me. You don’t have to hang around the fence like a creeper,” Parson said, grinning at him.

“Okay,” Dex agreed, going around to the entrance to sit with Parson who seemed way too amused to see him.

“I was worried that wasn’t actually your name, but I remembered,” he said, grinning. “I’m also about to get dessert and remembered you complained about my eating habits.”

“You called me over to complain about your diet?” Dex asked.

Parson laughed. “I just didn’t expect to see you and the coincidence was too much. You in Vegas for the NHL Awards?”

“I wish,” Dex answered. “My parents are here on business and they brought me and my sister along. I get to watch it on TV just like usual.”

“It’s not that great honestly,” Parson said and shrugged. “Your parents let you wander around a major city on your own?”

“I can be very convincing.”

“So they don’t know about that party you went to last winter.”

“Hell no.”

Parson grinned then pushed the menu towards Dex. “Here, pick something out.”

“Oh, I, um, already ate,” Dex said, and he had. He’d used up a fair amount of his cash to get it.

“Then get a dessert with me. Pick something out, and don’t worry, I’ll pay for it.”

“You don’t have to.”

“Dude, it’s fine. I can totally afford to buy an extra dessert. I’m not a broke college student. I was too lazy to cook which is the only reason I’m even out eating,” he said then shrugged. “That and my cat’s in a bad mood.”

Dex snorted. “You have a cat?”

Parson gave him a considering look. “You don’t follow me on social media, do you?”

Dex shook his head. “I don’t really follow anyone. I’ve only got facebook and a snapchat because Nursey forced me into it.”

“Oh, you can add me on snapchat then,” Parson said.

“You got a public snapchat?”

Parson waffled his hand. “Not really, but I only snapchat my cat. The whole team’s tired of it already, which is ridiculous ‘cause Purrson is the best cat ever, so I’m always looking for new people to send snaps to.”

“So I’m going to add your cat on snapchat?” Dex asked, completely amused despite being in the weirdest situation he had ever found himself in. In what world does he get the snapchat of a Stanley Cup winner? He should have been anxious and putting his foot in his mouth, but hearing Kent Parson confess he uses his snapchat for his cat which he has named after a pun of his last name made that all go away.

“Yeah, it’s actually named after him and everything.”

Dex laughed and pulled out his phone. “Okay, how do you spell Purrson?”

Parson spelled it out for him, and Dex typed it carefully into his phone. “Okay, added.”

“Sweet.”

Parson’s waitress came back, giving Dex a strange look before going with it. “Ready to order dessert?”

“Yeah, I’ll have the ice cream,” Parson answered then looked at Dex. “What do you want?”

“Uh,” Dex said, quickly scanning the menu and going for whatever had chocolate. “The chocolate cake.”

“Great,” she said, smiling and taking the menu from him. “It’ll be right out.”

Parson smirked at Dex. “Chocolate cake is so much better for you than ice cream?”

Dex shrugged. “It’s offseason.”

Parson chuckled. “Welcome to my point of view.”

Their desserts arrived, and they sat together in silence as they ate.

“Where’re you headed to after this?” Parson asked after he finished his ice cream.

“No idea,” Dex said and felt himself blush. “I’m actually kinda lost.”

Parson laughed. “And you just happened to wander into me? How exactly did you convince your parents to let you go off on your own?”

“I have a phone. I can make it back to our hotel whenever I want.”

Parson shook his head. “I can’t even think of any place you might want to hang out. You’re underage right?”

“Yeah, I’m honestly not out to drink with my parents in the same city as me.”

“Probably a good idea, what exactly is your sister doing?”

“Uh, sitting outside all of our parents meetings probably.”

“Then just take the hotel room for yourself.”

Dex snorted. “Yeah, that’s probably what I’ll do.”

Parson shrugged. “Great way to spend an afternoon. I, unfortunately, have to get ready for the NHL awards.”

“Do all the Aces have to go to that?”

“No, and I’m very jealous of the guys who don’t have to. I don’t like the guy they picked to host this year.”

“That sucks, but I’m still gonna watch.”

 The waitress came back with the bill, and Parson pulled a credit card out of his wallet to pay for it.

“Thanks for the dessert by the way,” Dex said, trying his best not to be weird about it.

“No problem,” he said, grinning. “This is like the weirdest way I’ve ever run into someone I know so that’s cool.”

“Same for me, I wasn’t even thinking I might run into an NHLer while I was here.”

“Really? You know the awards are happening.”

“Yeah, but I didn’t really expect it to happen, let alone with one I’ve actually met before.”

Parson got his card back from the waitress and signed for the bill, pocketing the receipt and his card again. “Just a day for coincidences, I guess,” he said, standing up.

“Guess so,” Dex said.

“Maybe I’ll run into you again someday,” Parson said, grinning before leading the way out of the restaurant’s eating area.

Back in his hotel room, Dex checked his snapchat and found that Parson had added him back. He stared at it for a little while, not really thinking that Parson would actually follow through.

Later that evening, he took a snap of Parson while he was on screen for the NHL awards. He didn’t send it.

* * *

 

Dex got his first snap from Parson a day or so later. It featured a cat he didn’t recognize sprawled across a grey couch. Parson had drawn little rays of yellow emanating from the cat. He got another snap from Parson immediately afterwards of him frowning and a line about how the cat wouldn’t let him sit on the couch. Dex giggled, tapped to reply, and never sent a snap back.

He received enough snaps of Parson’s cat over the summer to feel like he knew the cat better than he knew Parson. It also made him really tempted to send back a snap of lobsters because that was the only animal that ever got in range of his phone. He ended up sending them to Chowder because he’d send back the lobster’s life stories.

By the time Dex had gotten back to Samwell for the new school year, he’d kinda accepted that he was maybe too much of a wimp to send a snapchat back to Parson.

“I’m still so jealous you got Jack’s room,” Dex told Chowder the first time he made it over to the Haus. He’d been on campus a grand total of ten minutes.

“I know,” Chowder said, practically bouncing around the room in his excitement. “It’s so great.”

“And I’m stuck in a dorm again,” Dex said with a sigh.

“You agreed to room with Nursey which is more surprising,” Chowder said, taking a seat in his desk chair and wheeling it around the room.

“He’s really quiet when he reads and that’s most of his school work. I think it’ll work out.”

“Pie!” Bitty shouted from downstairs.

Dex shared a look with Chowder before racing him down the stairs. He made it down before Chowder, crowing in victory when Bitty handed over the first slice of pie over to him. Chowder elbowed him out of the way to take the second slice. “Don’t touch the other pie,” Bitty warned them. “That’s for the freshmen when we have our meeting tonight.”

“We won’t even look at it,” Chowder promised, his mouth already full.

Dex pulled out his phone and took a snap of the pie. He added it to his story with the caption ‘first Bitty pie of the year’. Then, without really thinking too much about it, he took a second snap of the pie and sent it to Parson. He captioned it ‘I know your secret weakness’.

He tucked his phone away as Nursey came bolting into the Haus. “Got it first!” Dex shouted at him.

“Dammit!”

Dex forgot that he even sent the snap until that night when he checked all of his alerts. After telling his parents he’d made it fine, he found he had a snap from Parson. He opened it to see a Parson holding up a pretty fancy looking salad captioned ‘almost as good as pie.’

Dex rolled his eyes before remembering he could send that as a snap. It took him three tries to record it properly, but he got it sent.

“Don’t think I don’t see you making snaps,” Nursey said as he passed Dex’s bed after leaving the bathroom.

“Shut up,” Dex said, tossing the heaviest non-breakable thing he had on him which turned out to be a textbook he wanted to sell back to Samwell’s bookstore.

It missed Nursey by a mile, landing on his bed. “What’re you trying to do? Kill me by book? My professors are already on it, dude.”

“I’m just trying to help them out.”

Nursey chucked the book back at him, but also missed. 

* * *

 

Dex returned home for winter break, grateful to be done with school if only for the moment. He probably had around three hours to return a snap to Parson. His longest streak currently was with Parson, it had been going since the start of the semester, and he was beating out Nursey for longest snap streak. He dropped his bags off in his room then pulled out his phone to record the snap. “Finally back home, time for hot chocolate,” he said for the snap and sent it off.

He joined his parents in the kitchen as his mom finished making hot chocolate properly in a pot on the stove. “Glad to be back?” his dad asked.

“Yeah, definitely,” Dex said. “I need a break.”

His phone buzzed in his pocket, and he assumed it was the responding snap from Parson. He let it be as him mom passed out mugs of hot chocolate.

“All you’re gonna do on break is play hockey,” his sister, Olivia, said, rolling her eyes.

“How else are you supposed to spend vacation?” he asked.

“Sleep twenty four seven,” his dad answered, laughing when Olivia glared at him.

“Billy, did we tell you about our plans for Christmas this year?” his mom asked as she took her seat.

“Uh, no, are we doing something different this year?”

“Yes, my mother doesn’t want to host this year so Aunt Lauren is going to.”

“Her dogs are gonna slobber all over everyone’s presents,” Olivia said.

Dex liked Aunt Lauren, but her dogs were significantly less pleasant. “Alright, so what’s the plan?”

He let his mom explain the Christmas Plan and his dad tell him stories about what had happened while he was gone before retreating back to his bedroom. He pulled out his phone. He had several texts from Samwell friends and teammates, but he opened Parson’s snap first.

“Lucky,” Parson in the snap says. “I’ve got like three days to see my family.”

Dex had kinda accepted their elongated versions of face time over video snaps. He planned what he was going to say and sent back, “That sucks are you gonna get hot chocolate though?”

Parson sent back a snap and he opened his mouth then Purrson jumped onto his shoulder and he started laughing rather than saying anything.

Dex sent a snap, telling him, “Purrson’s cuter than you, Parson.”

“Excuse you,” Parson sent back, then placed his hand on his chest hard enough for his phone to pick up the sound. “I am the cutest.”

Before Dex could send a response back, Parson sent him another snap. He flipped his snapback around to face forward and said, “And I didn’t realize we were so formal, Poindexter.”

Dex laughed because sometimes Parson could be worse than his Samwell teammates. “A snapback isn’t formal no matter which way you face it,” Dex sent him.

Dex ended up sending Kent a multitude of happy and hilarious snaps on the 26th after he didn’t even video him on Christmas. They probably were not even that funny, but Dex figured telling Kent he was gorging on Christmas cookies in his stead and for his health had to be somewhat funny as Kent sent Dex a snap pretty much any time he craved anything outside of his diet and Dex usually ended up eating it afterwards. 

* * *

 

“We should meet up,” Kent proposed.

“How do you expect that to happen?” Dex asked. “We’re on like opposite ends of the country and we’re both currently busy with hockey.”

“We call each other daily like old people. We should get together in person.”

“What, like in the summer?”

“Yeah, why not?”

“I work and you’ve got all that off season stuff you gotta do. You complained about it for like an entire hour yesterday.”

“Okay, but I only do that to you because you have surprisingly helpful advice.”

“I didn’t know telling you to imagine interviewers in Don Cherry suits counted as helpful advice.”

“So it’s not helpful,” Kent said, and Dex could hear him moving around. They were cutting it a little close to when Kent had to head out for his game. “But it’s hilarious which makes them all more bearable.”

“Don Cherry doesn’t even like you.”

“That’s what makes it extra special,” he said, and Dex can totally tell he was grinning. “And yeah, you should come by my place in the summer.”

“Yeah, sure, I’ll just walk over to your place whenever I’ve got time.”

Kent laughed. “I’m gonna fly you down, and you’ll stay with me. There, you’re not paying for anything. How can you say no to a vacation with me?”

“I don’t,” Dex sighed. “I don’t want to say no, but I don’t know how it’s going to work out.”

“We’ve got time. Just keep thinking about it, and keep me posted. Anyways, I really gotta head out,” Kent said. “Love you, bye.”

Kent hung up before Dex really registered his words. He stared at his phone for a few seconds before calling Bitty.

“Has somebody died? Are you dying? Did you do something to Nursey?” Bitty asked in quick succession.

“What? No, Nursey’s not even here right now, and that is so not my problem,” Dex said, grabbing his pillow and putting it in his lap just to have something to hold onto.

“What is the problem?”

“Uh, how do you do being in love with an NHLer?”

Bitty didn’t answer for a second. “It’s not a Bruins is it?”

“No?” Dex asked. “I don’t know any Bruins personally.”

“Wait, you know an NHLer personally who is not Jack?”

“Yes, and that’s why I said love and not like crush on an idol. It’s his fault for the whole situation anyways because he said love you then hung up on me,” Dex said, getting worked up enough to stand up from his bed. “Which is rude and I can’t even call him until after his game!”

“Wait, go back a sec, is this who you’ve been sneaking off to call all the time?”

“We don’t call all the time,” Dex said, defensively crossing his arms.

“A lot of the time, and you sneak off to talk to him, too.”

Dex sighed. “Yeah, what’s your point?”

Bitty giggled. “It’s cute you thought you were hiding your crush. We’ve been making bets on when you’d fess up to it. So, who exactly have you been spending all your time talking to?”

“Uh,” Dex said, stalling. He wanted advice, not to confess. “Kent Parson?”

“Huh,” Bitty said. “So instead of going for Jack you go for his ex.”

“They’re exes?”

“Jack doesn’t think so, Parson probably doesn’t think so either, but I think they’re kinda exes.”

“Anyways,” Dex said, drawing out the word. “Got any advice?”

“Be honest and know you’re probably going to have to do a lot of weird things to keep it a secret even if you’re not quite as active on social media as I am.”

“Yeah, that’s, it’s fine. Thanks, Bitty.”

“You’re welcome and good luck.”

Dex hung up before he had to think of anything more to say. He had a whole bunch of nerves bundled up in his stomach that he didn’t know what to do with. Looking over the past few months, he had definitely been acting like he was crushing hard on Kent. He’d also been figuring he wasn’t exactly straight since coming to Samwell. That didn’t mean he knew what to do with any of those feelings, and he dove into his homework to ignore them until he could call Kent again. Nursey walked in at one point, took a look at him, and walked out again.

Kent called him first. “I’m so sorry about what I said at the end before, I-.”

“Kent,” Dex said with more calm than he felt.

Kent took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Yeah?”

“It’s fine.”

“Okay, ‘cause I just didn’t want to make it weird because I still want you to come visit me.”

“Is that,” Dex said, having to take another breath before finishing his question. “Is it why you want me to come visit you? ‘Cause it’s alright if it is. It’s, uh, kinda why I want to visit you.”

“Oh,” Kent said. “You should definitely come visit me then. The longest I’ve got is probably like a week, but would that work?”

“Yeah, it will,” Dex said, nodding and laughing now that he no longer felt so nervous. “I’ll make it work.” 

* * *

 

“Quite the date night,” Dex said, grinning at Kent over the bowl of ice cream he’d served him moments ago.

“Seriously?” Kent asked. “Have I not taken you out enough?”

 “I wouldn’t say that,” he answered, considering they’d been out to dinner pretty much every night. They’d been pretty small and casual places, but it was still a lot more eating out than Dex was used to.

“Good, cause I’m not getting dressed to go out,” Kent said, shifting to get more comfortable on his dining chair.

“You’re barely even dressed to be in.”

Kent looked down at his outfit which consisted of boxers Dex knew he’d put on yesterday morning and a half zipped Aces hoodie. He shrugged. The only thing Dex had on that he didn’t was a shirt.

“You sure we can’t eat on your couch?” Dex asked.

Kent’s couch looked like some horrific modern thing coughed up out of a designer magazine, but it was comfier to sit on than Dex’s bed at his dorm.

“We are not getting ice cream on it after we already got popcorn all over it.”

“You’re the one who let me have it.”

Kent didn’t actually have any of the popcorn, preferring to break his diet with sweet things rather than salty.

“Yeah, cause we’re having a movie marathon.”

“But I’m cold eating ice cream in this freezer you call an apartment.”

“I turned the AC down,” he said as he shifted his chair. He turned and shoved his feet onto Dex’s lap. Dex stared at them a moment before looking over to Kent.

“Was that supposed to make me warmer?”

“Yes?” he said then shrugged. “I’ll cuddle you when we get back on the couch.”

“At least Purrson no longer scratches me when I sit down on it.”

“I wasn’t kidding when I said he thinks the couch is his.”

Dex turned to the couch to see Purrson perched on the back of the couch and looking like he was judging him. “Yeah, you weren’t lying.”

After they finished the ice cream and rinsed out their bowls, Dex found Kent kept his word about the cuddling, too. He curled up around Dex, covering them both in the blanket, only leaving Dex one arm free so he could use a remote to start their movie up again. Once the task was complete, he wrapped his arms around Kent.

Purrson eventually gave in and settled down on top of their laps.


End file.
